Hurricane Isaac is hitting the Gulf coast of the US right now, battering the area with 120 kph winds. Just after local midnight on August 28, the Suomi NPP Earth-observing satellite took this eerie and beautiful picture of Isaac when it was still a growing tropical storm:

This picture is a combination of several images taken in different filters, including is in the visible light and infrared, and uses light intensifiers to make faint things viewable [Note: this is actually one image, not a composition of several filtered images. Thanks to Robert Simmon for the correction!]. The waxing gibbous (just past half-full) Moon didn’t set until after 2:00 a.m. local time, so it’s possible the cloud illumination here was coming from that. And of course you can see the city lights, including New Orleans already under the outer bands of the storm.

Pictures of hurricanes from space are amazing. As always, there’s a fascinating dichotomy to pictures like this, a simultaneous ethereal beauty and repellent violence. Hurricanes are magnificent, and terrifying.

I hope everyone in the area stays safe. I’ve been through a few hurricanes, and they’re not fun at all.

I agree. Living in Florida, we’re on a roller coaster of emotions as tropical depressions form. We anxiously wait to see how strong the storm is going to get and where it’s going to land. It can be exhausting. Hurricane season 2004 comes to mind with Hurricanes Charley, Frances, & Jeanne coming in one right after another. I think we were all shell-shocked for a long time afterwards.

I agree with this! Have you ever walked around in the middle of a Hurricane’s eye? Yes I know it sounds foolish, but it’s absolutely calm, and there is NO wind. I had a very surreal experience doing this when a category 4 hurricane was passing over an island I was living on when I was younger. The sheer amount of silence is scary.